8 Holiday Shopping Tips from The Baglady

More than one person has asked me if I have any holiday shopping tips and so I decided to write an article here since a lot of my friends read this blog anyway. Hopefully these tips will help you save money and cut down your stress.

Spend Money You Have — Make sure your shopping budget is based on how much money you already have in hand. As I wrote in a previous post, my hubby has a gift account that he contributes to during the year. At the end of the year he has enough money to buy gifts without worrying. Basically, don’t spend money you haven’t already gotten because that is how you add to your debt. It’s also okay to use credit cards if you know you have enough money to cover it. In fact, using reward cards and then paying it off is a good thing.

Make a List and Prune It – When my husband goes out he always carries around a little notecard with things he needs to do and follows his list. Holiday shopping needs to be organized, too. The first thing to do is to make a list of all the things you need to buy. Then you should check the list and prune it down to the essentials and stay within your budget.

Start Early and Shop Online — It is actually a good idea to start shopping online in November. In fact a lot of deals are going online right now. Shopping early makes sure that you’ll get your items shipped to you in time. Retailers also started something they call Black Monday which is the Monday following Black Friday where they post similar deals to Black Friday as online exclusives. The difference is that on Black Monday you can shop from the comfort of your home or office without dealing with the crowds and problems with par
king.

Try to Avoid Black Friday — Last year my hubby braved Black Friday and went to Best Buy. At 4am the line was more than 2 blocks long and some people in the front of the line have been waiting since 11am on Thanksgiving day. The truth is most people do not get to buy the special deals on the Black Friday flyers because way too many people are competing for the same deals. If you want to cut out your stress and avoid being disappointed I suggest sleeping in on Black Friday and stuff yourself with leftover food.

Research Prices Before You Head Out — If you do go to the mall, do some research on the prices of things you want to buy. It’s easy to do this with a shopping comparison engine like NexTag. Write down the prices you see online and then go to the mall and then you can recognize the real deals. Having a good sense of the approximate prices of things can steer you away from “fake” sales where retailers push things as a sale but really is still charging a high price.

Don’t Get Tempted by Deals — After you’ve purchased your gifts for others you will still see sales EVERYWHERE. Don’t be tempted by the siren call of something you’d never use just because it is on sale. You may also be tempted to replace something you are using with something new, and my philosophy is “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. If your things are working fine in every way and you’re just itching to get something new you should resist it.

Check Return and Exchange Policies — Include a gift receipt with your gifts and make sure people can return or exchange the items you bought. It’s also good to return things you don’t want as soon as possible because my cheap ex-boyfriend returned an ugly scarf to Old Navy way after Christmas and the scarf was discounted to $2 and he only got a credit for that much.

Shop for Yourself After Christmas — I like to buy things for myself after Christmas because they’re often heavily discounted. My favorite things to buy are toiletries like bodywashes and shampoos from places like Bath and Bodyworks because when they have 75% off sales sometimes these shampoos are cheaper than grocery store shampoos. I can use the shampoos for an entire year and then stock up again. Clothing is also cheap after Christmas because stores are trying to clear out their left over inventory.

There you have it. I am certain that being organized and disciplined will steer you away from overspending. After all, a happy holiday is a holiday where you don’t have to worry about money.

Share This

Related Posts